


Little Orphan Son

by 5Chaos_Babe3



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bad Parenting, Dreamer 'verse, Except the Bretchelders, Family, Gen, Harry is actually pretty well adjusted all things considered, Harry is not a ball of angst, Heather will cut you if you mess with her baby, If it ain't JKR it's Shadowblayze's, The Dursleys suck but there are worse people, aka do not take parenting advice from the Bretchelders, i hate them, mentioned emotional abuse/neglect of background characters, mentioned minor character death, mentioned of forced dieting of a preteen, nonstandard sibling relationship, sibling relationships, the Dursleys aren't exactly the greatest either, those are mine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-27 20:12:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10045940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5Chaos_Babe3/pseuds/5Chaos_Babe3
Summary: Set in Shadowblayze's Dreamer 'verse.Harry ponders why he's never felt the loss of his parents and what it means to be a sibling.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadowblayze](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowblayze/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Triumphant the Dreamer](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/269780) by Shadowblayze. 



> This totally sparked off of Shadowblazye's amazing work, Triumphant the Dreamer. This is posted with her full knowledge and consent. This will also be cross posted to ffnet.

Sometimes, Harry would stop and wonder why he wasn’t more bothered by being an orphan. In all the stories, orphan’s were generally upset and sad over the loss. Well, except for Heather’s stories. Some of the stories were about orphans becoming that way because they wanted power and were nasty enough to make themselves orphans to get it. But most of the stories had orphans being sad about being an orphan. Harry wasn’t.

Harry had Heather. After he’d spent some more time with other kids, and talked with people at the Club, Harry had figured it out. Heather spent time with him, she taught him things, she told him stories, she worried about him when he wasn’t feeling well, she fed him, and while her rules were different from the Dumb Ol’ Dursely’s, she made sure he knew not to break them.

The first time he realized that how Heather treated him was different from other siblings was watching the kids at the Club. They fought and screamed at each other, sometimes they pushed and hit each other. Sometimes, they just never talked to each other. Harry couldn’t imagine that, couldn’t imagine a world without his Heather-feather there to tell him stories and hide behind him when there were too many people. Eventually he had decided that it was just a twin thing, not a sibling thing, but that had only lasted until he met the Bretchelder twins.

The Bretchelders had moved onto Wisteria Walk when the twins were eight years old, and they were utterly awful to _everyone,_ including each other. They were worse then the _Dursleys._ It was obvious to anyone who looked at them that they were trying to look better off then they actually were, but the worst bit was the fraternal twins. The Bretchelders twins were also eight, were also a boy and a girl, and naturally this meant that quite a few people expected both sets of twins to form instant bonds of everlasting friendship and grow up to marry each other in a double wedding ceremony.

The Bretchelder _parents_ had certainly held that belief anyway, or at least that the Potter twins would be hopelessly in love with their darlings and try and taint them. Heather had explained that to Harry. The Bretchelders wanted their daughter to marry a wealthy man, and their son to marry a rich girl. To that end, the twins were in extra classes for manners and dancing and all sorts of fancy things. Petunia hated them enough that she had waged a vicious gossip war on the Bretchelders after they said something disparaging about the Potter twins. Vernon was in full support of his wife after they had insinuated that Dudley was destined to be a middle class thug. (Harry kind of agreed with the Bretchelders there, but damned if he’d admit it after they’d called Heather a, well. Coach Rachel and Mr. Pritchard had refused to have anything to do with the Bretchelders after that.)

“Social climbers, Har-bear,” Heather had whispered to him one night after Florence had been particularly mean about Heather wearing the same clothes as Harry. “They want to get ahead, so they’re raising their kids to do it for them. The Dursely’s are different, they want to be wealthier and they definitely want Dudley to marry well, but they have always loved him. They spoil him rotten and they’re half-way to ruining him, but they love him unconditionally and he knows it. Shemuel and Florence don’t have that. Their parents only love them when it’s time to put on a show or when they do well in their classes. Florence is being raised to know that her only worth is to marry rich and that she’s pretty enough she might manage to snag one even if she has to get pregnant to do it. Shemuel is supposed to make enough money to make an heiress overlook his lack of wealthy ancestors _and_ to make Florence look good. It’s an old fashioned and degrading way to look at things, but there are people like that.

“The twins are being set up to compete for everything. Their parents’ attention, for a chance to show off, to having the best chance to cozy up to people. Their parents think that if the twins stop fighting each other, they’ll be more rebellious against all the rules, and the _stupid_ diets.”

It made sense, as Harry watched the other set of twins. It made a horrible, twisted sort of sense. Harry knew that Florence loved Cadbury eggs and had been really upset when they’d gone back to only being available seasonally. He’d seen her trade for them with the kids she’d never look at otherwise. But it was against her diet, as Shemuel had sneered at his sister when he’d seen it happen once, and he’d loudly deflected his parents berating him about his getting less then an ‘A’ with it.

“She’s slumming it with those paupers to get chocolates,” he’d said with a nasty grin.

Harry was glad when Dudley had pushed Shemuel in the mud the next day during lunch.

But Heather was never like that. She always supported him and looked out for him, and she tried her best to help him keep the Dursely rules even though she made sure he knew they were wrong. It wasn’t until that wonderful Spring Break they got to spend with the Pritchards and he saw Mr. Pritchard and Nana Ana with Kris and Coach Rachel that he got it.

Harry didn’t miss having parents because he had Heather, who was like a mum, a sister, and a best friend all in one. He didn’t need parents. Oh, sometimes having a dad, or another sister-mum, would have been nice, he guessed. Someone to help Heather run interference between Harry and the Dursleys or maybe to help Harry take care of Heather when she was done with people but Harry wanted to play some more. He’d actually talked to Kris about it once.

“I just want her to be happy,” Harry told Kris as she drew the pictures that would go with Heather’s stories. “I mean, she’s always going to have me, but sometimes I don’t know enough to help. I guess I want someone kinda like the mermaid, but with a voice.”

Kris had paused, amused. “You want someone who’ll never say or do anything to attract her attention who’ll quietly vanish from her life?”

“No,” Harry giggled. This was why he loved talking with Kris, she made it easier to put things in words. “Someone who decides that what Heather wants and Heather being happier is more important then what they want.”

“That’s love, kiddo,” Kris had said with a soft smile. “Not an event, not a chemical reaction. It’s just making that decision and then sticking to it.”

After Nana Ana died, Harry clung to Heather because it was the first time he could remember someone close to him dying, and he could count all of those people on one hand. The Pritchards, emotionally gutted by the loss, moved away. It's back to being Heather-feather and Har-bear against the world, but not quite. There are still others around at the Club, but there’s no one closer then Heather.

When the twins entered Diagon Alley, Harry was so excited, because this was _magic_ and Heather was actually really excited. The wand shop owner was so creepy, but she got between them and ripped into him without ever raising her voice or cursing, she was just so awesomely _fierce!_ And then they got to stay at the Singing Siren and the beds were just so amazing, and Harry wasn’t sure if he _could_ pry Heather away from the tub.

But there had been other kids in the alley, and he’d seen a pair of teens obviously out on a date and that got him thinking. _Was_ there someone in the gifted world who’d be good enough for his sister-mum? And could Harry share Heather? They’d been odd all their lives, what if they never found people who’d accept that Harry was Heather’s brother-son and Heather was his sister-mum?

Harry lay in bed, cuddled up with his sister-mum and dreading being separated. There had to be a way to stay together. He didn’t want to loose his sister-mum the way he’d lost Nana Ana.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, in the 1980's Cadbury really did have cream eggs out year round. However, the sales dropped so they were moved back to being a seasonal item.


End file.
